World Championship Wrestling (WCW) was an American professional wrestling promotion which existed from 1988 to 2001 before being purchased by it's former competitor, the World Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment).

Based in Atlanta, Georgia, it began as a regional promotion affiliated with the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) & ran by Jim Crockett Promotions until 1988, when Ted Turner & his Turner Broadcasting purchased the promotion, renaming it World Championship Wrestling. Over the next 7 years, the company fought to become a major player in the industry, but struggled to rid itself of it's perception as a secondary Southern promotion nowhere near the capabilities of the WWF. From 1995 onwards, WCW began to turn the corner, largely in part due to the promotion of Eric Bischoff to Executive Producer, the hiring of Hulk Hogan, the introduction of Nitro & the Monday Night Wars, the nWo & other innovative concepts, WCW moved to become the number one force in the industry. However, numerous problems led to the company losing its lead, and its fall from grace has been heavily documented within the industry, a problem not even former WWF writers Vince Russo & Ed Ferrara were able to stop. The promotion was purchased in 2001 by former competitor Vince McMahon and the then World Wrestling Federation (WWF), now World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

To date, WCW (and Eric Bischoff in particular) is the only promotion to have successfully gone toe-to-toe on a national scale with WWE.